A smart, funny, and fast-paced book about sex, love, body image, and friendship.

— Kirkus Reviews

Vow of Celibacy

by Erin Judge

Natalie has made a promise: a vow of celibacy, signed and witnessed by her best friend. After a string of sexual conquests, she is determined to figure out why the intense connections she’s spent her life chasing have left her emotionally high and dry. As Natalie sifts through her past and present, she confronts her complicated feelings about her plus-size figure, her bisexuality, and her thwarted career in fashion design.

Piecing together toxic relationship patterns from her past, Natalie finds herself strutting down fashion runways and rekindling her passion for clothing design in the present. All the while, her best friend, Anastaze, struggles with her own secret—whether or not to reveal her true identity to the thousands of fans of her popular blog and her potential first sexual partner.

Clever, sexy, and hilarious, Vow of Celibacy delves into the perilous terrain of love and relationships, the uncertainty of early adulthood, and the sustaining force of friendship. This is an irresistible novel about the stories we can’t help but tell ourselves about others, and it captures in perfect pitch what it’s like to be a young woman coming of age in America today.

Like an updated and more grounded Perks of Being A Wallflower, Vow of Celibacy cuts to the bone. The struggle has never been more real, and no writer understands it better than Erin Judge. There is a dearth of literature with bisexual characters at the center—Vow of Celibacy stands out because it captures the experience honestly and in a way that is so relatable. Equal parts witty and devastating, Vow of Celibacy understands the struggle to find footing in this difficult world better than anything else currently on the shelves.

— Catie Disabato, author of The Ghost Network

Vow of Celibacy is a funny and smart exploration of sex, love, and every woman’s road to body-positivity. Its characters are carefully crafted and relatable, whether they have sex or don’t. The ultimate message seems to be that growth and self-realization is different for everybody, and that what it means to love and what it means to have sex are relative.

— Foreword Reviews, Book of the Day

Vow of Celibacy is so funny and sexy and heartbreaking and joyous! I didn’t feel like I was reading accounts of relationships as much as I was overhearing friends talk about the most vital and exciting parts of them.

— Josh Gondelman, writer and web producer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Erin Judge’s Vow of Celibacy is a smart, witty coming-of-age tale starring a complex and courageous heroine who stays burned in your memory long after you put down the book. Natalie’s bold adventures in self-discovery and desire are sometimes hilarious, sometimes unnerving, but always engrossing.

— Heather Havrilesky, The Cut's Ask Polly and author of How to Be a Person in The World

Erin Judge spent half her childhood in Brooklyn and the other half in Plano, Texas, and somehow grew up to be a plus-size bisexual nightclub entertainer who also writes literary fiction.

Erin’s first stand-up comedy CD, So Many Choices, was released by Rooftop Comedy Productions in 2012. She tours nationally with the Crush Comedy Tour (formerly the Pink Collar Comedy Tour), has headlined the Women in Comedy Festival, and has appeared on Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham and NBC's Last Comic Standing. Her comedy has been written about in LA Weekly, Time Out New York, and The Boston Globe, and many more. Her own writing has been featured in publications including VanityFair.com, Salon, and Thought Catalog.